Failure simulation and identification of shock

absorber in carrier-based aircraft landing gear

Hui YANG, Fangyi WAN*, Weimin CUI

School of Aeronautic
Northwestern Polytechnical University
Xi’an, P.R.China
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—The gas-oil leakage in the shock absorber of carrier- dynamic state. The gas-oil leakage also influences the dynamic
based aircraft landing gear is a frequent and common failure, performance of the shock absorber. The gas-oil leakage is very
which can deteriorate the absorbing performance. However difficult to be detected qualitatively, of which the effect are
rarely research is done to quantitatively analysis the coupling always mentioned merely with qualitative explanations [10-
effect of gas-oil leakage on the absorbing performance. In this 12].
paper, the failure simulation and identification of shock absorber
is studied by numerical modeling and simulation experiment. To Currently there are rarely researches in this field involving
analyze the effect of gas-oil leakage on the shock absorber, the in gas-oil leakage in shock absorber. Thus it is very important
equivalent air spring stiffness is deduced. And Kringing model is to discuss shock absorber failure behavior to further explore the
introduced to surrogate gas-oil leakage to further present the more excellent shock absorber system. In the work presented in
relation of corresponding shock absorber time to residual gas this paper, the main purpose is to establish a numerical model
quantity and oil volume. Then an efficient method is proposed to and conduct simulation experiments to analyze the gas-oil
identify the failure of gas-oil leakage. The simulation experiment leakage. Meanwhile an effective method is proposed to identify
is designed to verify the theory presented in this paper. The result the gas-oil failure which can be applied to practical projects.
of numerical model explains that the gas cushioning property is
influenced by both gas and oil property. The simulation model is
used to obtain the coupling effect curve of gas-oil leakage on the II. NURMERCIAL MODEL
absorbing time. Eventually the analytical results show that the The leakage of shock absorber occurs due to deformation or
shock absorber performance varies with different gas-oil ratio abrasion of seal components. Fig.1 illustrates the schematic
caused by gas-oil leakage. view of the gas-oil shock absorber. The gas volume is
compressed by the push of the piston rod and rising oil level in
Keywords-gas-oil leakage; shock absorbing; simulation
compress stroke, then gas pushes back due to high pressure in
experiment; Kringing model; failure simulation and identification
extend stoke. To find out the internal relation between various
leakage situations and the absorbing performance, numerical
I. INTRODUCTION model is established based on the dynamic process in the shock
As the carrier-based aircraft lands on the deck with high absorber. According to the law of conservation of mass, the
speed, severe impact and huge vertical load are exerted to the research of the gas-oil leakage is transformed into the research
landing gear. An effective shock absorber is desired to dissipate of residual gas and oil. Hence, the following analysis
the impact energy to improve the safety and reliability of emphasizes on the residual gas-oil variables.
landing [1]. There are two main causes for the leakage of the
shock absorber as following: (1) the structural friction damage
at the contact interface [2-3]; (2) the deformation of sealing
rubber in high pressure and temperature [4-6]. These factors
may induce sealing failure and reduce the absorbing
performance. For carrier-based aircraft landing gear, gas
chamber and oil chamber are two main components because of
the leakage failure. It is assumed an air spring model that the
landing impact energy is stored in the gas chamber through the
compression and expansion [7]. And oil flowing via the oil
orifice transfers the mechanical energy into thermal energy by
generating damping force. Therefore, the effect of the leakage
in both gas chamber and oil chamber is important to analyze
leakage failure. In the gas chamber, the stiffness of the air
spring varies due to gas volume deformation [8] and damping
force is related to the oil flow in the oil chamber [9], both are in
978-1-5090-0382-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
 Figure 1. The schematic view of the shock absorber[13] In order to accentuate the gas quantity, it’s assumed perfect
gas in the chamber, so the state equation is written as
A. Gas Leakage Numerical Model
The air spring stiffness ( K ) is associated to the gas 0 0 = NRT
PV (3)
quantity in the chamber and has different values determined by
initial volume and pressure on the static equilibrium position Where N is the quantity of the gas molecules, R is a gas
[9]. The cushioning properties of the air spring differ due to
constant determined by the gas density, T is the temperature of
different gas leakage, so the relation of the air spring stiffness
the gas chamber.
( K ) to the residual gas quantity is elaborated here.
Hence, the initial pressure is
The nonlinearity of the air spring force is exhibited mostly
because of compressibility of the gas, internal friction, and
energy transfer by heat. However due to the small amplitude NRT
and suitable height of the gas strut, the value of expansion ratio P0 = (4)
is relatively small, so the gas pressure p , at a certain stroke V0
position, can be denoted by the linear interpolation equation as
below[14] Substituting (4) to (2), the stiffness ( K ) can be written as
an equation of the initial parameter V0

p p
= 1 ª1 − γ ( ε − ε1 ) º¼ (1)
p0 p0 ¬ 0.733γ ( NRT ) Aa2
2

K= (5)
V03
instead of the accurate function
Equation (5) shows the residual gas quantity ( N ) is
−γ proportional to the spring stiffness ( K ). Thus it can be proved
p = p0 (1 + ε ) that the gas leakage decreases the cushioning property of the air
spring due to the less amount of gas in the chamber [16].
and ε is given by
B. Oil Leakage Numerical Modeling
With the oil density being constant, the residual oil can be
V − V0
ε= presented as residual oil volume ( W ), of which the amount
V0 reduces as the oil leaks in the shock absorber. Some attempts
are made to model the oil leakage by equation for W .
Where V is the gas volume, V0 , p0 are the initial gas
The total oil volume ( W ) can be written as
volume and pressure at static equilibrium position,
respectively; γ is the polytrophic exponent of the air spring.
Referring to the derivation as introduced in [15], the highest W = ³ qv dt (6)
accuracy of (1) can be achieved when p1 p0 =0.733, ε =0.25
Then the linear gas spring stiffness ( K ) is represented as For the part of oil flowing, any effect of thermal conduction
and diffusion is ignored. Considering the oil flow through the
damping orifice, the equation of the flux formula is given by
γ p0 p1 F 2 0.733γ p02 Aa2
K= = (2)
V0 V0
2( Δp )
qv = Cd Ad (7)
Where Aa is the gas effective area, the value for γ is 1.2 ρ
in the shock absorbers.
Where qv is the volume flow, Cd is the orifice flow
On the basis of the pneumatics theory, the gas state coefficient, Ad is the effective orifice area, ρ is the kinematic
equation is
viscosity. Δp is the differential pressure between inlet and
outlet pressure of the orifice, which is related to the dynamic
p1V1γ = p2V2γ process of the shock absorber.
According to the hydrodynamics theory [17], it’s known
Where p1 , p2 and V1 , V2 are the pressures and volumes at that
certain two positions, respectively.
Ah vh = Ad vd Cd (8)
 vh = x (9) Combining all the equations about oil flow, the oil dynamic
model is shown as
Where Ah , vh and x are the area, velocity and compress
displacement of piston rod, respectively. vd is the flowing
­W = q dt
velocity of oil through the orifice.
° ³ v
Referring to Bernoulli’s equation, °
°q = C A 2 ( Δp )
° v d d
ρ
1 °
p = p0 + ρν 2 (10) ° 1 2 ρ Ah2
2 ° p = p0 + 2 ν 2C A2 x x
° d d
Substituting (8) and (9) into (10), the pressure p is written ° pc
as °λc =
® p0 (17)
° mx = P + P + P
° a f l
1 ρ Ah2 ° r
p = p0 + ν 2 x x (11) ª V0 º
2 2Cd Ad2 ° Pa = pAa « » − p0 Aa
° ¬ V0 − Aa x ¼
°
In the compress stroke, the position of the maximum oil ° Pf = Cm Pa
pushed into the gas chamber is considered the upper limit of °
both gas pressure and consumption of oil, where is full °P = ρ A03 sgn x
x 2
compression state. Full compression ratio is shown as ° l 2 A C 2 1− A A 2
¯ ( d d) ( d 0)
Numerical simulation of oil leakage is solved by (17),
pc which indicates that the initial state is related to residual oil
λc = (12)
p0 volume ( W )at the static equilibrium position.
To meet different residual gas quantity and oil at the static
Where pc is the full compression pressure and based on equilibrium position, an equivalent initial state is defined based
[18], λc =4. Thus the maximum value of pressure is pc = 4 p0 . on (3), of which the equivalent initial parameters are p0 and
V0 . Since the degree to which gas-oil leakage occurs is random,
The governing dynamics equations of the piston rod can be
the corresponding equivalent initial state varies, so as the initial
presented as resultant force of air spring force Pa , oil damping
parameters p0 and V0 . In terms of (5), the equivalent stiffness
force Pl and friction force Pf [19],
( K ) is described as the function K ( N ,V0 ) . Based on (17),
residual oil volume ( W ) is expressed in a function related to
mx = Pa + Pf + Pl (13) equivalent initial parameters V0 .

Where Pa , Pl and Pf can be expressed as

r
ª V0 º
Pa = pAa « » − p0 Aa (14)
¬V0 − Aa x ¼

Pf = Cm Pa (15)

Figure 2. The equivalent stiffness - residual oil volume curve with different
ρ A03 sgn x residual gas
Pl = x 2 (16)
2 ( Ad Cd ) 1 − ( Ad A0 )
2 2

The relation between equivalent stiffness ( K ) and

Where Cm is the coefficient of kinetic friction, A0 is the
( W ) is obtained through (5) and (17), that is,
N ,
effective oil area. K = f ( N , W ) , and the curve is shown as above.
 Fig.2 illustrates the numerical relation of K - W with The Latin hypercube sampling method is utilized to select
different residual gas quantity. The equivalent stiffness ( K ) the samples ( N , W ), of which the value surrounding the input
decreases while residual oil volume ( W ) and residual gas parameters to reduce sampling number and assure simulation
quantity ( N ) decrease. Especially as the residual oil volume ( precision. Here 15 sets of samples is obtained and it’s
W ) reduces from 1×10−3 m3 to 0.9 × 10−3 m −3 , the equivalent concluded that ( K ) is related to ( N ) and ( W ) from (2) and
(16), and the sampling result is shown in Table.1
stiffness ( K ) reduces dramatically to merely about 30% of the
normal cushioning property, which changes much flatter with After the simulation experiment, the absorbing time ( t ) is
lower residual oil volume. Compared with the oil leakage, the measured to estimate the effect of ( W , K ) on the absorbing
influence of the gas leakage is relatively small and leads to a performance when landing. According to Table.1, take ( W ,
little difference among residual gas quantity ( N ) ranges from
K ) as the variable parameters to the LMS physical model to
0.5mol to 0.7mol, of which the influence is much smaller to the
simulate corresponding leakage situations. The absorbing
equivalent stiffness ( K ) vibration curve of a set sample is demonstrated in Fig.4, of
Through the complex derivation of the gas-oil leakage which the maximum amplitude is obtained. The absorbing time
numerical modeling, the coupling effect of gas-oil leakage on ( t ) is selected at the point where the wave crest first falls
the cushioning property is obtained quantitatively. It indicates below 5% of the maximum vibration amplitude by numerical
the absorbing performance of the shock absorber is descended calculation, as the line shown in Fig.4.
by the gas-oil leakage. From the numerical model, the oil TABLE .1 Samples results and corresponding equivalent stiffness
leakage is proved much more dangerous, compared with the
gas leakage, to result in the air spring cushioning property Residual gas quantity Residual oil leakage Equivalent stiffness
failure especially at the initial oil leakage state. (N) (W) ˄ K˅
0.598 0.215 0.485
0.549 0.416 0.472
III. SIMULATION EXPERIMENT 0.632 0.724 0.794
The simulation experiment of the shock absorber in the 0.700 0.079 0.492
landing gear is operated to evaluate the failure of gas-oil 0.667 0.477 0.495
leakage as shown in Fig.3. When landing on the deck, the 0.645 0.288 0.512
0.602 0.905 1.128
absorbing time is determined by the performance of the shock 0.555 0.109 0.394
absorber. As a result of different oil leakage, it’s difficult to 0.672 0.804 0.911
measure the dynamic loads exerted by the air spring. So 0.683 0.327 0.515
equivalent stiffness ( K ) is proposed to characterize the 0.584 0.800 0.761
property of the gas leakage air spring. To validate the effect of 0.535 0.646 0.500
gas-oil leakage to absorbing performance, the drop test is 0.626 0.885 1.126
0.677 0.899 1.228
operated and the absorbing time is selected to be the response.
0.575 0.690 0.598

Figure 3. Simulation experiment of shock absorber in the landing gear

As the process of the simulation performance is of great

complexity and a large amount of time must be spent on it,
Kriging model is introduced to surrogate the gas-oil leakage Figure 4. The absorbing vibration curve
and corresponding absorbing response. Obviously, the gas-oil
leakage is a random event. Thus the residual gas quantity and Combining the absorbing time ( t ) and various random
oil in the chamber can be regarded as random variables ( N ) variables ( N ) and ( W ), the Kriging model of shock absorber
and ( W ), of which the units are mol and m3 , respectively. is established and verified. Based on Kriging model which has
According to the real situation, the ranges of the value is been established, the relationship between random variables
W  ª¬0,1× 10−3 m3 º¼ , N ~ [0.5, 0.7], where W = 1×10−3 m3 and ( N ) and ( W )and the response value ( t ) is studied, and the
N =0.7mol imply there is no leakage. response three-dimensional curve is shown in Fig.5.
 situation and the oil leakage will lead to the failure of the shock
absorber and it’s necessary to be repaired. Meanwhile it can be
considered safe situation when N a ≤ N 0 and won’t lead to the
failure of the shock absorber in the short term.
According to the absorbing time curve in Fig.5 and the
method above, the gas-oil leakage failure can be identified
easily by just comparing the actual residual gas quantity ( N a )
and the critical value N 0 , which can be applied to actual
process and enhance the performance of the shock absorber.
Figure 5. The absorbing time curve As mentioned in section II, a specific situation considered
here is where ( K ) is dramatically decreased due to oil initial
Fig.5 illustrates the absorbing time curve. This curve leakage. Therefore compared with no leakage, the case in
indicates that the shock absorbing time ( t ) increases as either which W =0.9 is discussed here.
the residual gas or oil decreases which detects the gas-oil
leakage can surely reduce the absorbing performance of
landing gear.
As shown in Fig.5, when the oil leaks a little, gas leakage is
the main reason leading to absorbing failure. While the worst
absorbing performance occurs on the area where the residual
oil is closed to 0 but the residual gas is almost full. It can be
inferred the effect of oil leakage is far greater than the gas
leakage, and much more attention should be paid to the
particular positions caused oil leakage, such as sealing ring, the
sealing valve and so on.
Figure 6. The absorbing time - residual gas quantity curves for two different
IV. IDENTIFICATION OF GAS-OIL LEAKAGE FAILURE. residual oil volumes
From Fig.5 the gas-oil leakage can be identified efficiently
through the absorbing time. Fig.6 illustrates the t − N curves, which are the projecting
curves of W =0.9 and W =1.0. The t − N curve of W =1.0
With an acceleration transducer attached on the landing signifies there is no oil leakage in the shock absorber and the t-
gear, the absorbing time ( ta ) in actual settings is taken when N curve of W =0.9 means the case where the oil leakage can
the carrier-based aircraft lands on the deck. And to measure the dramatically reduce ( K ) in Fig.2. Between the two
residual oil volume ( Wa ), the piston rod is pushed to the full intersections in Fig.6, ( t ) of W =0.9 is shorter than that of no
compression position and measure the relative distance H oil leakage, where the gas leakage and oil leakage happen
between the top of the outer cylinder and the bottom of the simultaneously and achieve the optimum gas-oil ratio due to
piston rod, which is considered the approximate height of the the improved flowing property[20]. Thus the absorbing
residual oil, then the residual oil volume ( Wa ) can be obtained performance of the shock absorber increases rather than
as below decreasing.
The identification method is proved to be efficient in
W = Aa H analyzing the common gas-oil leakage problems.
(18)
V. CONCLUSION
As Wa is known, the absorbing time curve rejects a t-N
curve to the Y-Z plan. Then with ta , the residual gas quantity The failure simulation and identification of shock absorber
in carrier-based aircraft landing gear is studied in this paper.
( N a ) can be obtained. The numerical model of gas-oil leakage in the chamber is
The conception of critical value N 0 is proposed here to established to obtain the relation of equivalent air spring
stiffness to the, residual gas quantity and oil. The absorbing
judge whether the gas-oil leakage leads to failure or no. Due to performance of the landing gear is tested by simulation
little research about gas-oil leakage, further study is required to
experiments under different circumstances of gas-oil leakage.
determine the specific value of N 0 and it is assumed a certain
In addition, Kriging model is introduced to surrogate the gas-
constant in this paper. oil leakage and corresponding shock absorber time. Finally an
Fig.5 illustrates that the absorbing performance of the shock effective method is capable to identify the failure of gas-oil
absorber, under the same oil leakage condition, is reduced as leakage. Some main conclusions on the gas-oil leakage in the
the residual gas volume decreases. So it can be deduced shock absorber are as follows
when N a ≤ N 0 the oil leakage is severer than the critical
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The authors wish to acknowledge the support of National helicopter,” Helicopter Technique 1(2015), pp. 61-63.
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offered to Mr. He, Mr. Fan, and Mr. Yu for their assistant work polytechnical university Press, Xi'an, 2001.
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